Thanks,
D K Dhiraj

I need to take a random sample of 5000 rows for each of several types of things in one big table. If “INSERT TOP 5000″ really will pull 5000 rows randomly, then I am all set. But if this is really just pulling 5000 rows from the table while an unknown sort order is applied, it will not work.

Can anyone confirm or deny that this is truely random (or at least as pseudorandom as computers can get)?

Thanks in advance.

I am new and trying to make use of Top 100, to limit the number of records which are inserted into my temp table, but getting error message(s)

Error 1 : Incorrect syntax near keyword ‘top’
insert top 100 into #TEMP_DATES
(
A,
B,
C,
D
)
select
1,
2,
3,
4
from
#TEMP_M_Date

Error 2 : Incorrect syntax near ’100′
insert top (100) into #TEMP_DATES
(
A,
B,
C,
D
)
select
1,
2,
3,
4
from
#TEMP_M_Date

Please help me understand the syntax, I am using SQL advantage (and working on sybase)

Thanks!

I found this blog when I am looking for using Insert Top for the batch insert. Basically, I have the situation that requires insert 10 mil. Rows in a table. In order to avoid blocking, I have to using some sort of batch insert technique. Will this Insert Top help? Would you please give out an example?

Thanks.

I frequently use “select * into ” for inserting into one table from another table with same column fields of same database or different database.

select * into tableA(columns) from tableB(columns)

Your can modify this if you are working with two database:

select * into DatabaseA.dbo.tableA from DatabaseB.dbo.tableA

Hope you will find this useful.

Insert into TableB (Column Names)
Select Column Names from TableA

~Peace.

selecting all the columns from table A (i.e. select * from A) and inserting them into a dataset B which is already existing having the same column names.

How can i do that :( ?

use AdventureWorks;
go
CREATE TABLE dbo.SickLeave1
(EmployeeID int, FullName nvarchar(100), SickLeaveHours int)
GO
INSERT TOP (10)PERCENT
SickLeave1(EmployeeID,FullName,SickLeaveHours)
EXEC (‘SELECT
EmployeeID, FirstName + ” ” + LastName, SickLeaveHours
FROM Person.Contact JOIN HumanResources.Employee
ON Person.Contact.ContactID = HumanResources.Employee.ContactID
ORDER BY SickLeaveHours DESC’)
go
CREATE TABLE dbo.SickLeave2
(EmployeeID int, FullName nvarchar(100), SickLeaveHours int)
GO
INSERT TOP (10)PERCENT
SickLeave2
EXEC (‘SELECT
EmployeeID, FirstName + ” ” + LastName, SickLeaveHours
FROM Person.Contact JOIN HumanResources.Employee
ON Person.Contact.ContactID = HumanResources.Employee.ContactID
ORDER BY EmployeeID DESC’)

select * from SickLeave1 order by EmployeeID;
select * from SickLeave2 order by EmployeeID;

drop table SickLeave1
drop table SickLeave2

PS:Sorry for lengthy comments.

select * from SickLeave1 order by EmployeeID;
select * from SickLeave2 order by EmployeeID;

drop table SickLeave1
drop table SickLeave2

Observe the ORDER BY cluase in both inserts….
Result: Same result from SickLeave1 and SickLeave2
–>The rows referenced in the TOP expression that are used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE are not arranged in any order.
ref:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174335.aspx

if it is ignoring Order by
what meaning of Second Method ?
any other purpose can we use this ?